Gender, Race, Class And The Tragic/heroic In W. Faulkner’s Sanctuary And Go Down, Moses And Eugene O’neill’s Anna Christie And Chris Christophersen

Departing from the idea that the Tragic/Heroic art can be aesthetically demonstrated and not be seen as alien or remote in almost every literary text because it can be construed in so many ways, this article proposes a tentative contribution to this continual questioning of the dominant classical interpretations of the tragic/heroic in two Faulknerian novels: Sanctuary and Go Down, Moses and in two plays by Eugene O’Neill: Anna Christie and Chris Christophersen. Despite the fact that when read for the first time these works would manifest almost no connectedness with tragedy as art, this article will assert the argument and emphasize the need to decode the tragic/heroic aesthetic evolvement in all these works within the literary context of the beginning of the twentieth century. Taking note of the changing artistic patterns of the tragic/heroic, it also discusses the tragic/heroic in relation to some central issues like class, race or the gendered place of women and the male constructed prejudices within the American society. Using August Strindberg’s and Henri Bergson’s aesthetic redefinitions of the tragic/heroic destiny of man at two different ages, we will bring into awareness how women were obliged to submit to patriarchal discriminatory morals, and also how different theoretical and philosophical views can interact and evince the constant dialogue with the writing practices of both authors, and make the tragic/heroic evolve into new artistic dimension.